1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a dishwasher, and more particularly, to a dishwasher and a method for controlling the same.
2. Discussion of the Related Art
In general, a dishwasher is an apparatus for automatically washing dishes. Owing to the functions of washing, rinsing, drying, and storing dishes, the dishwasher greatly reduces housework.
A washing method of the dishwasher is divided into a shower type and a supersonic type. The shower type dishwasher is normally employed for domestic use. The shower type dishwasher washes dishes by spraying hot water on dishes put in a dish basket, the water in which detergent dissolved. A method for spraying water includes spraying using a propeller, and boring a plurality of holes on a pipe and rotating the pipe.
Referring to FIG. 1, a conventional dishwasher will be described hereunder. The conventional dishwasher includes a water collector 20 provided at a lower part of a tub that forms a space for dishwashing, at least one washing arm mounted at an upper part of the water collector 20, and a rack 40 provided at an upper part of the washing arm 30.
The water collector 20 includes a sump 21 for accommodating wash water, a washing pump 22 for pumping the wash water from the sump into the washing arm 30, a draining pump 25, and a channel guide 23 for guiding a part of the pumped wash water from the washing pump 22 to the washing arm 30.
A filtering member 26 for filtering garbage included in the wash water (hereinafter, called contaminants) is mounted at the sump 21. A draining hose 27 is coupled with the draining pump 23 so as to discharge wash water to an outside thereof.
The filtering member 26 is generally divided into an automatic type for automatically discharging contaminant along with the wash water during the draining process, and a manual type that requires a user to remove contaminants. A working process of the dishwasher structured as mentioned above will be described as follows. The conventional dishwasher performs rough washing, main washing, rinsing and draining processes. Hereinafter, for convenience sake, the rough washing will be called a washing process.
When the washing process is started, the washing pump 22 pumps the wash water from the sump, and a part of the pumped wash water is moved to the washing arm 30 through the channel guide 23 so as to wash dishes. At the same time, the remainder of the wash water is guided by the channel guide 23 and flowed into the filtering member 26 so as to be filtered thereat. Thereafter, the wash water in the washing arm and the wash water in the filter member are all returned to the sump 21.
When the washing process is completed, the draining process is started. When the draining process is started, the draining pump 25 receives the wash water of the sump and drains to an outside thereof. In this instance, when the filtering member 26 is the automatic type, the wash water and the contaminants in the dishwasher are discharged outside through the draining hose 27. When the filtering member 26 is the manual type, the user needs to separate and remove the contaminants from the filtering member 26 after all the processes are finished.
The conventional dishwasher however has problems as follows. First, when a filtering member is an automatic type, contaminants are directly discharged from the dishwasher to an outside thereof. Therefore, an environmental pollution problem is raised. When the filtering member is a manual type, there is inconvenience that the contaminants need to be removed every time the dishes are washed. Second, since the contaminants of the dishwasher are decayed, a bad smell is generated and decayed water may flow down. Therefore, a user is exposed to an unsanitary environment.